


Something on the way

by gonattsaga



Series: I lygternes skær [2]
Category: Blinkende lygter | Flickering Lights (2000)
Genre: Character Study, Established Relationship, Friendship, Halfway out of the closet, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing Scene, Relationship Study, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 07:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1973541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gonattsaga/pseuds/gonattsaga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter can't wait to see Arne, really see him, all of him. But Arne's not ready for that yet. He's still got all of his walls. Whereas Peter has none left. Finally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something on the way

There's a panicky note in Arne's voice the second time he calls out for Stefan. Peter and Torkild exchange a wary look. And then they hear her, and her high-pitched excited voice. Torkild swears under his breath and follows Stefan out of the kitchen. Peter drowns a sigh with another swig of beer and waits.

 

"What's on the way?" Arne's voice travels through the doorway. "Torkild? What's on the way?"

 

Torkild pushes Arne in front of him into the kitchen. He gives Peter a significant look, _we might have a problem here_ , and Peter returns it even as he holds his arm out for Arne and curls it around him in a one-armed hug. Arne snuggles close to him, which is unusual but not unwelcome, and Peter hugs him just a little bit closer. He can feel the tension in the younger man's body. And when he glances at Torkild he catches a glimmer of concern in the older man's face as he looks at Arne. But it's gone again just as soon as it appeared and he turns away from them both and starts cleaning up the mess Arne has left behind while struggling with his sauce. Peter cranes his neck and peers into Arne's face, to see what Torkild could've seen to make him worry, even if it was only for a second.

 

Arne seems a little off centre, and _yeah, maybe he looks a little lost._ Peter reaches up to brush his fingertips across his brow, as if to brush the worry off him. It almost works.

 

"Fuck man, I can't stand that woman..." Arne mutters, but there's no real aggression in him.

 

"It will be okay", Peter says and as he does, he realises that he actually believes it.

 

 _Well_ , he thinks. _That's new_.

 

He can't remember the last time he believed things would be okay, if he ever did, but _yes_ , when he thinks about it, when he first met Torkild and Stefan _and Arne_ , then he believed that things would be okay again, and they sort of were. But that's a lifetime ago and he has no idea what happened between then and this moment, what made him doubt again.

 

He remembers the cocaine haze and the raw reality that was constantly trying to break through, the reality that things had stopped being okay somewhere along the line, even though he might have lost sight of where and why.

 

And how come Arne wasn't enough to anchor him then, when right now everything and everyone else, including Torkild and Stefan, are disposable as long as Arne is by his side? How come he never realised that before?

 

"Peter man..." Arne says and there's an unmistakable note of worry in his voice. "Are you okay, 'cause you're not acting like yourself..."

 

"I'm more than okay", Peter tells him and knows it's true, they're not just words anymore.

 

Arne's eyes widen slightly, the sincerity in Peter's voice and face so rare that it's completely thrown him off.

 

"You'll be okay too", Peter tells him.

 

"I am okay", Arne bristles.

 

"Mm, not yet..."

 

Then before Arne can turn the moment into a fight, Peter leans in to brush his lips across his collarbone, in an almost-kiss.

 

Arne immediately tenses up, his whole body goes rigid, Peter swallows a sigh and leans back and let's the other man pull away from him. _It's too soon_ , he thinks.

 

They never kiss in daylight. They barely touch, only in rare moments like this or when they're completely alone, and even then it's tame and fleeting, _a hand on a shoulder, a one-armed hug_ , never the needy, kneading, desperate touches they share in the dark. Peter has never even seen Arne naked. That's not entirely true. He's caught plenty of glimpses of Arne in the nude, _changing his shirt, stepping in and out of showers, running into the autumn cold water with Stefan and Torkild the other day_ , but never naked. And there's a difference, Peter knows, between nude and naked and it _makes_ all the difference too. He's never really cared before, but now...

 

Now he can't wait to see Arne, see _all_ of him, naked and exposed and beautiful, can't wait to watch him come apart. But not yet. Arne's nowhere near ready for that yet.

 

Peter lets his hand travel down the other man's arm as he moves away and lingers on his hand. For a brief moment their palms touch, it's almost like they're holding hands, and then Peter lets go.

 

Immediately Arne shoves his hands into his trouser pockets and angles away. It's a self-defense mechanism, the way his chest caves in, shoulders shooting up, half-turning away from the big scary thing. _Guess that's me this time_ , Peter thinks. And it's a compliment really.

 

Arne is only ever scared of things that make him _feel_. Any emotion other than anger and the false joy you get from having fun on someone else's expense shakes him to the core, and the good feelings scare him more than the bad ones because he doesn't know what to do with them, where to put them and how to keep them from going bad. _So really it's a complimen_ t, because it means that whatever Arne feels for him, he feels in the very core of himself.

 

There's a bit of trust there too, which pleases Peter even more, because even though the other man has angled his hips away from him, his shoulders still face him slightly. As though the kiss Peter planted on his collar is holding on to him, like some magnetic pull between them. Peter smiles to himself. That's just what it is, this thing between them, it's _magnetic_.

 

That's why they could never keep away from each other, even when they were stupid and insecure teenagers who strongly believed that _gay_ was synonymous with _weak_. Arne still thinks that on some level. But Peter tries not to dwell on that.

 

"You're acting weird", Arne mutters again, but he doesn't seem to mind as much anymore.

 

"I know", Peter says.

 

It comes out as soothing. Arne pretends not to have noticed.


End file.
